Gregory Harbin, Foreigner

For the first half of tonight’s Idol, I thought it was going to be another Beatles Wk. 2. Happily, a few good performances pulled us out of the slump.

My bottom two are positively Rami and Carly, whose performances were dull, lifeless, and just a little bad. Simon’s right, Carly needs a new wardrobe. She either needs to sing tattoo songs, or cover them up. I don’t know who her audience is supposed to be. Rami really needs to stop bouncing, and connect with her songs more. Her voice isn’t bad, but I have no desire to ever hear her sing, which isn’t a good sign.

Nos. 6 and 7 are Sayesha and Brooke, respectively. I just didn’t like Brooke’s performance, and her mannerisms, while cute(ish), are now annoying me. I haven’t been able to forget her yellow dress song, and not in a good way. Sayesha was actually kinda good for some of her performance. She hit some Whitney notes that I didn’t think she could do. She’s not higher up because I didn’t believe the performance until the very end, and because I don’t think she can be anything more than a Whitney-wannabe.

Crossing over into my Good Book is Jason Castro. At #5, I actually liked what he did tonight. He still sang softly, and picked a safe song, but he didn’t look out of breath, didn’t look goofy, and I was grooving along to the song. I felt his guitar wasn’t intrusive for once, and he actually looked like he was up on a stage singing for millions of people, which is good for someone that is.

David Cook is a star. He will have a record contract. I will buy his CD. I’ve already bought three of his singles on iTunes. But this wasn’t his night. I don’t know what of Dolly he could have picked that would have made me happy, but that just wasn’t it. Not that he didn’t do a good job, just, not his night. I did like that he did his own arraignment rather than co-opting someone else’s. That was cool.

My top three are 3. Archie, 2. Kristy, and 1. Michael. Archie didn’t blow me away, but it was my favorite of his performances so far. I won’t buy any of his CDs, but he deserves to be as popular as he is. Kristy! Kristy did great! I kind of liked her last week, although I wasn’t a fan of the (rather obvious) song choice, but this week was great. And that dress!

Michael Johns had me with his first phrase. By far the best performance of the night. Not his best performance (download his ‘Day in the Life’ studio single from iTunes NOW), but a solid, solid performance. The man is a genius.

To recap: 9. Ramiele Malubay 8. Carly Smithson 7. Brooke White 6. Sayesha Mercado 5. Jason Castro 4. David Cook 3. David Archuleta 2. Kristy Lee Cook 1. Michael Johns.

Gregory American Idol, Brooke White, David Archuleta, David Cook, Entertainment, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns, TV American Idol, Brooke White, David Archuleta, David Cook, Entertainment, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns, TV

Well, folks, it’s official. American Idol is never doing The Beatles again. It worked so well last week that they felt they should push their luck, and truthfully, I’ve never seen an honest effort backfire quite so spectacularly.

From OK to Bad to Worthless:

OK: David Archuleta showed that he actually knows what he’s doing on stage. It wasn’t a great performance, and he still needs to step it up to win, but he remembered the lyrics, sung like a champ, and showed rather good stage presence. Michael Johns also did not bad this week. The song felt a bit of a mess, but he pulled it off. He should stay and show us the real Mike next week. David Cook was almost exciting. The vocoder was silly, and the song didn’t show off his singing, but he’s already a rock star, and is just waiting for the show to end so he can get on a real stage.

Bad: Kristy Lee was bad. She didn’t connect with the audience, she didn’t know the song, and she couldn’t hit the notes. I love you Kristy, what happened? Carly Smithson managed to neither impress me nor anger me. It was not a good performance, however, and not something of which anyone wanting to win a talent competition should feel proud. Jason Castro needs to lose the dreads, stop making stupid faces, and learn to control his breath. It’s not cute, and while the song started off OK, by the end, I was bored.

Worthless: Chikezie ruined that song. Ruined it. The less said the better. Sayesha was all over the map, and what’s with the Oprah makeover? Amanda continues to be depressingly parodic. Brooke was entirely lost. And Ramiele needed to go home weeks ago.

Positively safe: David A., David C., Michael, Carly.

The Bottom Three: Ramiele, Kristy, Sayesha

Going home: probably Ramiele

Gregory American Idol, Brooke White, David Archuleta, Entertainment, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns, TV American Idol, David Achuleta, Entertainment, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns, TV

Oh, Archie, Archie, Archie, Archie.

I said it before he started singing: “The Archie backlash will begin soon.” Well, he helped things along. That weak, awkward, line-forgetting, grimacing performance was one of the worst I have seen in an AI top 12. He was by far the worst performer last night, and should by any metric be in the bottom 3 in tonight’s results show.

But enough of that for now. Who’d I like? Oh, my Kristy Lee continues to shine. I’ll admit that her country-fying of “Eight Days a Week” wasn’t astounding, but she has a good stage presence, and deserves to stay on. Mike Johns did a great job on a really difficult song, “Across the Universe.”Also fantastic last night was Chikezie. If he continues to improve, he’ll get into my Top 3, which for now is Kristy Lee, Michael, and Brooke White, whose performance of “Let It Be” wasn’t the best, but very solid.

Back to the negative. Going home should and will be one of these three: Archie, Ramiele (so bad), and David Hernandez, whose butchering of “I Saw Her Standing There” needs to be quickly forgotten. He’s nowhere near as good as he thinks he is, and the farce just needs to end.

Gregory American Idol, Brooke White, David Archuleta, Entertainment, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns, TV American Idol, Brooke White, David Archuleta, Entertainment, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns